This invention relates to a carding machine for processing textile fibers such as cotton, chemical fibers or the like and includes travelling flats composed of flat bars provided with a clothing. Between the points of the flat bar clothings and the points of the carding cylinder clothing a clearance is maintained through which the fiber material passes as it is being treated by the clothings. Opposite ends of the flat bars glide on convex slide guides each formed of a flexible element positioned on a convex surface of the associated flexible bend.
In a known arrangement the distance between the convex outer surface of the slide guide on the one hand and the concave inner surface of the slide guide and the convex outer surface of the flexible bend on the other hand, is constant along the circumferential direction of the carding cylinder. The convex outer surface and the concave inner surface of the slide guide and the convex outer surface of the flexible bend are arranged concentrically to the rotary axis of the main carding cylinder. The flexible bend has a recess, for example, a groove in which the slide guide is stationarily supported. In order to vary the distance between the points of the flat bar clothings and the points of the cylinder clothing for the purpose of altering the carding intensity, because, for example, the nep number has increased and/or a fiber shortening in the fiber web has occurred, the position of the flexible bend is altered by adjusting a plurality of setscrews, to thus change the position of the slide guide. This operation results in a raising or lowering of the flat bars, thus changing the distance between the points of the flat bar clothings, on the one hand, and the points of the carding cylinder clothing, on the other hand. Such an adjusting process of the flexible bend is, however, circumstantial. It is a further disadvantage of the conventional arrangement that the geometry of the flexible bend depends from the number of the setscrews. Further, for effecting the change, the carding machine has to be at a standstill and lateral carding elements such as drive, suction arrangement and flat bars have to be removed and subsequently reassembled. Such an operation involves a significant outlay of the assembling operation. It is also a drawback that because of the necessary standstill, the production of the carding machine is interrupted.